NIH Public Access Policy: 2024 Policy Details

On December 17, 2024, NIH released its updated 2024 Public Access Policy. This revised policy is in keeping with the White House OSTP memo “Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research”. The Policy was informed by public feedback, including comments received in Summer 2024 in response to the NIH Draft Public Access Policy.

The 2024 Public Access Policy is effective for manuscripts accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025. (Note, the original implementation date of December 31, 2025, was accelerated by the new NIH Director.) Until then, NIH’s current (2008) Public Access Policy remains in effect. See NIH's Public Access website with all related policy documents and announcements.

The following definitions were introduced in NIH's 2024 Public Access Policy and supplemental guidance documents (unless otherwise noted):

• Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) - the author’s final version that has been accepted for journal publication and includes all revisions resulting from the peer review process, including all associated tables, graphics, and supplemental material.
• Embargo - An embargo in publishing is a restriction on access to full-text content until a certain amount of time has passed (this definition is provided by the Library).
• Final Published Article - The journal's authoritative copy, including journal or publisher copyediting and stylistic edits, and formatting changes, even prior to the compilation of a volume or issue or the assignment of associated metadata.
• Official Date of Publication (ODP) - the date on which the Final Published Article is first made available in final, edited form, whether in print or electronic (i.e., online) format.
• Submitted Manuscript - The author’s pre-accepted version of the manuscript that is submitted to a journal or publisher.

For manuscripts that are accepted for publication in a journal on or after July 1, 2025, NIH requires:

1. Submission of an electronic version of the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) to PubMed Central upon its acceptance for publication for public availability without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication. An embargo period of any length will no longer be allowed. 
   • The author of any article published open access with a Creative Commons license can deposit the Final Published Article rather than the AAM in PubMed Central. 
      
2. An acknowledgment in the AAM and Final Published Article that satisfies the requirements in the NIH Grants Policy Statement (GPS) regarding communicating and acknowledging federal funding (GPS 4.2.1 and GPS 8.2.1), as well as analogous requirements for acknowledging federal funding as incorporated into the terms of Other Transaction agreements and applicable contracts.

   • See GPS 8.2.1 for suggested language for the acknowledgement.

3. When an AAM is submitted to NIH (via the NIH Manuscript Submission System), agreeing to a standard license that mirrors that of the Government Use License at 2 CFR 200.315, or its successor regulation, explicitly granting NIH the right to make the AAM publicly available through PubMed Central without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication.
   • See language for NIHMS submissions below.

While publication costs for open access publishing of the final published article will still be allowed within regulations, publisher fees for depositing the AAM to PubMed Central are not allowable. Authors will continue to be able to deposit the AAM without having to pay. See Publication Costs below.

The 2024 Public Access Policy applies only to manuscripts accepted for publication in scholarly journals (see applicability details). Requirements for data management and sharing remain covered by NIH's 2023 Data Management and Sharing Policy.

NIH also released its draft Plan to Increase Findability and Transparency of Research Results through the Use of Metadata and Persistent Identifiers in December 2024. The final version of this policy will be issued by December 31, 2026, with an effective date no later than one year later.

The move to require all senior and key personnel named in a grant to begin using the Common Forms through SciENcv for their Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support forms was postponed from the original May 25, 2025, effective date. The new effective date and additional implementation details are forthcoming.

The following information is summarized from the NIH Notice, Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Public Access Policy: Government Use License and Rights.

Rights granted to the NIH by awardees

Upon accepting NIH funding, recipients grant to NIH the right to make Author Accepted Manuscripts (AAM) resulting from the funding publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication. This is affirmed via a statement in Notices of Award, in the terms of Other Transaction agreements, and in applicable contracts. 

Authors submitting an AAM to PubMed Central via NIHMS must agree to a submission statement as part of the standard PubMed Central manuscript submission process. Under the NIH Public Access Policy, authors submitting an AAM to PubMed Central must provide NIH with a standard license that mirrors the Government Use License.

Language that authors will encounter as part of the submission statement to PubMed Central via NIHMS:

I hereby grant to NIH, a royalty-free, nonexclusive, and irrevocable right to reproduce, publish, or otherwise use this work for Federal purposes and to authorize others to do so. This grant of rights includes the right to make the final, peer-reviewed manuscript publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication. 

The language in this statement may evolve, but it includes a grant of rights to NIH to make the AAM publicly available in PubMed Central without an embargo, upon the Official Date of Publication.

Guidance for communicating rights in author manuscripts

NIH highly encourages authors to be transparent during the journal submission process by indicating to the journal or publisher that the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM), should the Submitted Manuscript¹ be accepted, is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy. This means that NIH, as the funding agency, has the right to make the AAM publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication. NIH does not require that authors demonstrate to NIH what was communicated to publishers.

NIH suggests that authors include the points above as a statement in the Submitted Manuscript. Such a statement may accompany the required funding acknowledgment. 

Sample language from NIH that may be included in the Submitted Manuscript and the accepted AAM:

This manuscript is the result of funding in whole or in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy. Through acceptance of this federal funding, NIH has been given a right to make this manuscript publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication, as defined by NIH.

[1] The author’s pre-accepted version of the manuscript that is submitted to a journal or publisher.

See the NIH Notice, Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Public Access Policy: Publication Costs, for complete details.

The NIH Public Access Policy clarifies that reasonable and allowable publication costs may be requested in the budget for the project as direct or indirect costs, as specified in the NIH Grants Policy Statement (GPS) 7.2 and GPS 7.9, and as incorporated into the terms of Other Transaction agreements and applicable contracts.

Importantly, the NIH Public Access Policy also states that submission of Author Accepted Manuscripts to PubMed Central remains free for authors. Journal or publisher fees that arise during the course of the publication process for the sole purpose of submitting the Author Accepted Manuscript to PubMed Central are not allowable costs. Compliance with the Policy does not require the payment of an open access fee to a journal.

Additional sections in the Publication Costs guidance

See these sections in the Supplemental Guidance:

• Other Unallowable Costs
• Points to Consider for Authors and Institutions in Assessing Reasonable Costs
• Other Public Works for Which Allowable Costs May be Requested
• Reputable Journals and Responsible Conduct of Research
  • See the Library's guide to avoiding predatory publishers and our research reproducibility materials

As specified in the Policy, compliance may be achieved through either:

• Submission of the electronic version of the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) to PubMed Central upon its acceptance for publication, for public availability without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication, or
• Submission of the Final Published Article to PubMed Central from journals or publishers with formal agreements with NLM, upon the Official Date of Publication, for public availability without embargo.
  • Authors who publish an article open access with a Creative Commons license may also deposit the Final Published Article in PubMed Central. 

NIH intends to continue monitoring compliance through existing processes. Implementation accounts for processing time that may be needed before public availability in PubMed Central. When AAMs are deposited into PubMed Central, an NIH Manuscript Submission Identifier (NIHMSID) may be used temporarily until the submission process is complete and a PubMed Central Identifier (PMCID) is assigned.

Additional details on compliance and enforcement

• Grants: Noncompliance with the NIH Public Access Policy may be considered by NIH regarding future funding decisions for the recipient institution (e.g., as authorized in the NIH GPS 8.5, Specific Award Conditions and Remedies for Noncompliance (Specific Award Conditions and Enforcement Actions)). Non-competing continuation grant awards are subject to a delay in award processing for noncompliance with the NIH Public Access Policy.   
• Contracts: Compliance with and enforcement of the Policy will be consistent with the contract and the Federal Acquisition Regulations, as applicable.
• Other Transaction Agreements: Compliance with and enforcement of the Policy will be consistent with applicable NIH policies and the terms of the agreement.
• Intramural Research and the Official Work of NIH Employees: Compliance with and enforcement of the Policy will be consistent with applicable NIH policies and procedures.

Communicating and acknowledging federal funding enables a clear, public-facing indication of NIH funding in Author Accepted Manuscripts and Final Published Articles. Failure to include required acknowledgments may result in noncompliance with the NIH Public Access Policy, in addition to resulting in noncompliance with terms and conditions of funding regarding communicating and acknowledging federal funding.